I don't gig and have no musical commitments. I just play for enjoyment, or, creatively speaking, because I can't help myself. And there are times when I don't feel like playing piano, either because I'm bored with what I sound like, or just feel like "why bother?". I also play guitar, so sometimes I get involved with that at the expense of the piano. Usually, I gravitate back to the piano, maybe because I've had an idea, or heard something that reminds me of something, or something else. But what really makes me want to sit down at the keys is listening to Bill Evans. Even though I don't play like Bill, and never will, sometimes I just feel like I want to make some of those sounds, the feeling that comes from creating a voice, maybe even a single chord. The goal at that point isn't to try and play like Bill, but to try and capture the essence of how Bill expresses a melody or phrase or combinations of notes over a chord. Once that impetus strikes, I'm good for while, until I get bored with my playing again.

    PianoMonk , I don't think I'll ever play like Bill Evans but I have come to appreciate some of his style. I do regularly play Waltz for Debbie and have messed with Very Early a bit. Neither are all that difficult though the chord progressions are somewhat unique and don't always... well, ok, rarely go where they might be expected to. But they are both pretty tunes.

    Bill Evans left us too soon. He had a troubled life in lots of ways. But he left behind some good music.

      Just submitted a piece to the Online Recital. The next closest thing to performing on a public piano is to make a recording of yourself playing and sharing it online. There is a deadline so you push yourself to learn pieces or pick easier pieces that can be learned in a day or 2.

      When pressing the 🔴 button, we can do several takes and keep the best performance. On a public piano you only get to play a piece once even if you have wrong notes.

      We were "hotdoggin'" a bit in the band last weekend. Somebody requested a song, Mack the Knife. We don't have that one on our list that we've practiced but it's not that hard of a song. So, I started it out and played it in C. Mmmkay. And then the drummer was clownin' around and daring me to bump it up a key. So I did. C#. Played through it just fine. And the drummer dared me to do it again. And since D isn't a favorite key of mine to just jam in, I bumped it from C# to Eb and played it again. Plenty of wrong notes in there if anyone was paying close attention... but we were laughin' and clownin' around and the crowd was eatin' it up.

      Wrong notes aren't the end of the world in a live setting like what we were doing. If you're in a recording studio and want every note perfect, then I suppose wrong notes are a much bigger deal.

      I remember of a lot of wrong notes when I'd listen to Victor Borge play. I didn't care. The audience didn't care. It wasn't about "correct notes". It was about how he, as an artist and performer, made the audience feel.